he first WPS Warmaster Tournament was held in Blackpool on the 10th and 11th of February (2001) as part of the Ribble Rumble.

There were 4 different tournaments run at the Ribble Rumble and I dare to say that the WM tournament was the most relaxed and most fun of the four.

There were 8 players, which seems not to be much, but which is ok compared to the 14 Warhammer Ancients and the 22 Warhammer 40k players, both systems being much longer on the market than WM.

RulesThe rules were straight forward, every player had to fight 5 battles using a 2k Warmaster army. No restrictions to the army selection and none were needed. All 5 games used the standard set up, armies 80 cm apart and alternate deployment unit by unit.

ArmiesThere were 4 High Elves armies, one Orc and Goblin, one Chaos and two Empire armies. One of the HE armies was replaced by an Undead army as the player had to leave unexpectedly.

I choose a rather basic High Elves army without Or of Majesty and without dragon. Each of the other three HE players had a dragon and 2 of them also the Orb. The Orb was the by far most popular item with 6 out of 8 players using it. Monsters were also well represented with 4 dragons (three HE and one Chaos) and 2 giants (in the same army) . But monsters are not too powerful in WM, so this is far from beardy.

My army list
I prefer troops over monsters, so I did not choose a dragon.
While a dragon has a lot of attacks concentrated on a small frontage, I get at least 3 good units for the same price, which are more flexible and have much more attacks and hits in total. That the breakpoint is higher comes as a free bonus.

I refrained from using the Orb of Majesty, just to make a change and to prove that it can be done without it.

The army consisted of

Number

Unit

1

General

1

Hero with Sword of Fate

2

Wizards one with a Scroll of Dispelling

4

Spearmen

4

Archers

4

Silver Helms

2

Reavers

2

Chariots

1

Giant Eagles

2

Multi-Bolt Thrower

ResultsThe organisers decided to give the same score for army selection and painting to all players due to the lack of experience with WM tournaments (which is not surprising as it was the first WM tournament). This left only game play and sportsmanship as factors influencing the total score.